Fortney: Mysterious and perplexing day as police search property near Airdrie

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They walk shoulder-to-shoulder, a wall of slow moving, strapping men dressed in dark clothing topped with dark hats. They seem from a distance to be engaged in some sort of sombre march, oblivious to the sweltering heat of the afternoon sun while they look down and scour every inch of the ground covered with tall grass.

I’ve seen such a scene many times on TV crime shows — never in real life, though. Knowing how what is at stake here is so very real to so many people, it is chilling beyond belief.

Such is the scene Saturday at this acreage just a few minutes northeast of the town of Airdrie, which includes a coterie of Calgary police cars, RCMP and scores more of unmarked vehicles, with the incessant whirring of TV news helicopters overhead.

A few hours into our wait on what should be a pleasant weekend afternoon, there is still no word from authorities of just what the extensive search is all about. It is, though, sadly obvious. Not surprisingly, by the suppertime news hour, my broadcast colleagues begin to inform their viewers that this could be related to the disappearance Monday of Kathryn and Alvin Liknes and their five-year-old grandson Nathan.

Throughout this tense day, most of us have been unwilling to so much as broach the subject on our Twitter feeds and other social media, well aware of the gravity of jumping to any conclusions. Still, it is nearly impossible not to think it could be anything else, as neighbours driving by tell of a growing police presence over the previous 24 hours.

Earlier on Saturday, search and rescue teams wander through the pretty Parkhill neighbourhood the Liknes family has called home for nearly two decades; just as that search is abruptly called off, one can see a line of more than a dozen City of Calgary police cars zooming up Highway 2, turning off in the direction of the acreage.

The lack of information also echoes the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the trio sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning, an event that started as an act of violence, a fact confirmed by police several days later.

As I wait on the side of the road with a growing army of journalists, I send out on social media only that information I can be sure of, that I see with my own eyes. Occasionally, a neighbour in this beautiful rural district stops and admits that they are just as dumbfounded as those residents of Parkhill.

“This is such a beautiful, pleasant place to live,” says longtime resident Corissa Boychuk, sister of NHL hockey player Zack. “It’s so hard to believe something horrible might have happened right here, in our quiet area.”

Another car, this one with a friendly middle-aged couple who won’t give their names, tell me that “those are real nice people that live there,” though they don’t know their names.

Finally, at least part of this mysterious and perplexing day becomes clearer when the Calgary Police Service sends out a release confirming that a man is in custody, he is connected to this acreage and he owns a truck similar to the one shown on CCTV outside the Liknes home on the night of the abduction.

At police headquarters, duty inspector Joel Matthews doesn’t give us much more. The man is cooperating with police “to a degree,” he says, and the Amber Alert is still on. But he says police don’t know if the man lives at the residence, if he has a prior history with police, if the green truck found is the same one, or even why scores of officers are going over a huge acreage, almost literally blade upon blade of grass.

So with that, one of the more mysterious, and sad, episodes in Calgary’s recent history continues for at least another day. A city remains on edge — and a family holds on to hope.

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Fortney: Mysterious and perplexing day as police search property near Airdrie

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